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I agree with you partly. The benefits are great & fairly above international norms. But I do not agree with the "firing protection" anymore. Last year alone I saw thousands let go in Berlin in fairly large organizations like neobanks for example. I myself saw my previous employer let go of 30% of the staff over the year. A simple Google search of - "Berlin IT firings 2025" will give you a picture.

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That’s interesting, how does hard-to-fire law combine with a company that needs to have layoffs?

Hard-to-fire typically means only specific and provable reasons are valid.

"Shrinking the org" is a valid reason.

I guess it works for companies which are not part of the union?

"The union" should be "a union", of which, companies are rarely a part of ie zero. Their workforce may be a member of a union, some equals in grade may belong to different unions.

Thank you for your generous correction but you could rather address the point I was trying to make.

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